1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a light-emitting keyboard, an illuminating structure thereof, and a keycap thereof; in particular, to a keyboard providing lighting to illuminate the keycap.
2. Description of Related Art
Light-emitting keyboards which allow electronic devices having keyboards to be used under different lighting conditions have been disclosed. Conventional light-emitting keyboards mainly use backlight modules as light source. The backlight module is positioned behind the keys, including a light-guiding plate and a light source positioned on one side of the light-guiding plate, e.g. a light-emitting diode (LED) or an electroluminescent (EL) light source. The light-guiding plate guides incident light toward the backside of the key. The bottom portion of the light-guiding plate has a reflector plate for reflecting light back into the light-guiding plate. Then, a microstructure on the front side of the light-guiding plate emits light toward the underside of the key.
A disadvantage of the conventional method described above is that the light source must pass through the light-guiding plate, be emitted from the microstructure on the top face of the light-guiding plate, pass through a bridge board of a scissors-type mechanism, and travel a distance before reaching the underside of the key. Therefore not only is much of the light source wasted and ineffectively used, but also leaked from the gaps between keys creating undesired lighting thereat.
Moreover, the biggest disadvantage of the conventional light-emitting keyboard is the increased height of the overall keyboard. Neither the light-guiding plate nor light-emitting diodes arranged in array is able to prevent the thickening of the keyboard.
Hence, the present inventor believes the above mentioned disadvantages can be overcome, and through devoted research combined with application of theory, finally proposes the present disclosure which has a reasonable design and effectively improves upon the above mentioned disadvantages.